THE WORDS WHICH MEANT THE END OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 71, 24 March 1934, Page 19

THE WORDS WHICH MEANT THE END OF THE WAR

Tile Countess of Oxford highly recommends her late chauffeur. Mostyu, who has bought Uer_car, for hire on contract or short periods. Behind this.. advertisement lies tho story of a man who has seen behind the scenes in the lives of the great, writes a "representative of the "Daily Express,". Jn 1910, Robert Mostyn called, at Cribcieth to ask Mr. Lloyd George whether he needed a chauffeur. Mr. Lloyd : , George did, and from that moment Mostyn's adventures began. • "It ,',was the ' time of the suffra-' gettes/' Mr. Mostyn said. "Many times they oSered me bribes of hundreds of pounds, to cause a breakdown on a lone-, ly road, so that 'something' might happen to. Mr. Lloyd George. They tried to bribe ine.!to smash the car. Once in the Mile.'End Road"; we saw' that the. way was-iijloeked by an angry crowd.: There; '/was' only one thing to do . , . uiouht the pavement at full speed and run the gauntlet of an angry mob." ■ ' ■ '- ■- .:' • ■

But there were greater days in store. The war came, and Robert Mostyn was chosen to drive for "Sir Henry Rawlinson, commander of the Fourth Army. "He was like a father to me," says Mr. Mostyn. "I drove for him for three years on the Somme. Often the windows of the ear were blown out by guns. /General Rawlinson was fearless.

"Sometimes I waited -with the car for ten hours behind the trenches, a fine target for gunfire,: while the general toured the lines.-1 WKfiii^the enemy were within five miles of^Aul'iens and the town was . deserted, ijarl-e'd to troops because it was under shellfire night and

day, the general insisted on driving through, the bombarded town every day. That was how I won the M.S.M." In the same car Corporal Mostyn heard the words spoken which pronounced the end of the World Wat. Seated' in the back :of -the> car were General Kawlinson, Sir Henry Wilson, and Marshal Foch. It was June, 1918. Sir Henry Wilson wanted the British and French forces to dig in for another winter. General Rawlinson wanted to finish the'war. "If I can have the best troops to make a push on my part of the. line,"-he declared, "we can end'it." The last word was with Foeh. ".Rawly," lie said,'in broken English, "you can have yotopjwv-way. Take the pick of the T British Army:" • ■' .;., ■:!,■; :,'-*.i : "And those' words, spoken in the baiili? of my ear,' Which I eouldnot.'help" hear-* ing," Corporal Mostyn said, "meant the', end of the war. The reason General Eawlinson spoke those words was boi cause for'the' previous four months he had been secretly making flights in a slow- photographing aeroplane over the German lines. He stayed over the lines for two hours at a time. "During one of Mr. Lloyd George's visits to Prance he came to the Fourth Army headquarters. Ten generals stood outside saluting him, and, to everyone's surprise, he noticed only me, a corporal. ' sw : "'Well, Mostyn,' he said, 'fancy see* ing you:'.' And in front of an; a'stoiij ished general staff the Prime Minister walked up to me, a corporal, slapped me on'the back, and .shook hands!"